Brockton victim's family shows mercy for 17-year-old's killer

“I'm happy with the verdict, but I feel bad for both families,” said Shelley Gurley, the 17-year-old victim's mother. “At least, one day, he will be paroled and it's up to him to be paroled.”

BROCKTON –A 25-year-old Dorchester man was convicted of second-degree murder on Wednesday in the fatal shooting of a Brockton teenager in 2007.

Andre Robert Brewer was sentenced to life in prison after Brockton Superior Court jury found him guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Jose Gurley, a 17-year-old Brockton resident and star football player for West Bridgewater Middle-Senior High School..

Brewer will be eligible for parole at age 40.

“I’m happy with the verdict, but I feel bad for both families,” said Shelley Gurley, the 17-year-old victim’s mother. “At least, one day, he will be paroled and it’s up to him to be paroled.”

Brewer was also found guilty of unlawfully possessing a firearm, unlawfully possessing a loaded firearm and unlawfully possessing ammunition and will serve those sentences concurrently with his murder sentence.

After the trial, during a victim impact statement, Tiara Gurley, the victim’s sister, also voiced her hopes that Brewer will not spend the rest of his life behind bars.

“I prayed on my knees every night that you didn’t spend the rest of your life in jail,” said Tiara Gurley.

However, Tiara Gurley added that she thought Brewer had to be punished for his actions.

“What you did was wrong and you have to do some type of time,” she said. “People do change, but I honestly feel that you killed my brother.”

However, the trial still left Tiara Gurley with one lingering question.

“We proved that you were guilty, but we didn’t prove why my brother is dead,” Tiara Gurley said.

On July 21, 2007, Jose Gurley was shot and killed outside a house party that was dispersing at Roosevelt Heights, a city-owned, affordable-housing complex on Arthur Paquin Way.

Allegedly, Gurley was trying to break up a fight between two other men who were arguing over a woman when he was killed.

About 3 that morning, Brewer, dressed in all black and wearing a black baseball hat, walked to the scene of the shooting, raised his right arm and fired three to four shots toward Gurley before jumping into the back of a black Honda Accord, which fled the parking lot, said Assistant District Attorney Christine Kiggen during the trial.

Gurley’s murder sparked vigils and anti-violence marches across the city and garnered national media attention.

The case was featured on “America’s Most Wanted,” a national investigative crime show on the Fox television network, as authorities searched for Gurley’s killer.

Almost four years after the murder, federal, state and local authorities arrested Brewer in New Bedford on March 8, 2011. He was arraigned on the charges in Brockton Superior Court on June 29, 2011, after a June 3, 2011, indictment.

Prosecutors said the break in the case came in November 2010 when two witnesses came forward and identified Brewer as the shooter.